Prohibition

     In the 1920s an amendment was passed that banned use, ownership, and production of alcohol in the United States. This was the Eighteenth Amendment that was pushed by progressives who had a new and clean image of the government. Almost the whole country was against this amendment. Protests, riots, black markets, all arouse and people were demanding an end to this ban. The poor had absolutely no source in possessing alcohol. However, the rich were able to illegally have ownership of alcohol and smuggle it into their homes. The Great Gatsby was set in the 1920s, during the era of prohibition. Alcohol was difficult to get a hold of and people consumed it at every chance they received. Jay Gatsby, a rich individual who had means of owning alcohol, had extravagant events almost every weekend, in his mansion. These parties consisted of alcohol and that is mainly the reason why large amounts of people attended them. These events were opportunities for people to finally catch a hold of alcohol. The word was probably spread around that there is alcohol at these parties and that is probably the reason why most of the guests were uninvited and unknown to Gatsby. While these guests enjoyed the parties much more than Gatsby, Gatsby would just observe the events and host them, just to provide happiness to these people. Maybe he was against the prohibition and this was his protest against it.
     Also connected to the prohibition, Miss Baker told Nick how Daisy had had her first drink right before her wedding and was not used to it. This was probably due to the prohibition and Daisy had not seen alcohol ever before in her life. Also Jordan explained how while all the women would drink, Daisy would keep her morals straight and keep her reputation high. Even after the end of prohibition, Daisy continued to not drink because it was what she was used to and drinking seemed disreputable to her.